Aggies on Heisman Trophy e-ballot. No kidding.

COLLEGE STATION – Getting back into the swing of things following a short vacation, but wanted to pass along that Texas A&M was part of the official Heisman Trophy ballot.

More accurately, it was “Texas AM” or “Texas A and M.” And it was the electronic ballot.

Voters are given the chance to vote online – the Heisman folks actually prefer it that way, comes with less paperwork – but doing so requires a few stipulations.

One is that there are no special characters from A&M allowed. So tight end Martellus Bennett, late of the Aggies and currently of the Dallas Cowboys, apparently would’ve been disqualified if he’d ever even been considered. (That’s a joke).

Here’s the third admonition on the electronic Heisman Trophy ballot, following “Rules Governing the Vote” and “Please Vote for Three Players”:

“This ballot will not accept special characters. Please use only alpha/numeric characters when casting your ballot. Example: Texas AM or Texas A and M versus Texas A&M.”

First, I know where they’re coming from. The ampersand in A&M messes up our coding on our Web site all of the time. Second, I guess the good folks at the Heisman weren’t concerned that citing A&M, excuse me, AM, as the example would influence the voting.

Speaking of, I’m guessing a lot of Aggies look forward to the day when Texas A and M’s lone Heisman winner, John David Crow (1957), starts yelling, “Gig ‘Em!” when another Aggie is introduced as the winner.

And then Crow yells “Gig ‘Em!” about nine more times until the poor soul at the podium responds, “Aggies!” That way, former winner Billy Sims won’t be alone with his “Boomer!” beat-down every time an Oklahoma player is introduces as the winner.

My ballot read like this, by the way: Bradford, McCoy, Harrell. I voted for Tebow last year. Not an ampersand among their schools. But A&M – errr, AM or A and M – at least made the electronic ballot. Aggies fans can only hope that one day voters might actually need to exercise that third decree.